T´łagakwame'
Headpiece - Cedar Bark Regalia
Cedar Bark regalia is sacred and used in all except one of the Kwakwaka’wakw ceremonies. Although they may appear the same, each object is unique and is only used for specific dances.
Catalogue Information
Provenance
Owned by Harry Hanuse until its forced surrender to Indian Agent William Halliday on March 25, 1922. Halliday later displayed and photographed the seized pieces at the Parish Hall in Alert Bay. After doing an inventory, he crated the items in June, and at the end of September he shipped some of them to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, on long-term loan from the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of History). They remained in the possession of the ROM until the NMM pulled its loan and returned the pieces to the Nuyumbalees and U'mista cultural societies in 1988. In September 1993 Dan Hanuse Sr. requested that his father's pieces be transferred from Nuyumbalees to U'mista as per the wishes of the majority of Harry Hanuse's descendants.
Materials
Bark, Cedar; Fibre, Cotton; Dye
Dimensions
10.5 cm x 30.0 cm (dia.)
Accession Number
94.09.022
Physical Description
Red cedar bark head piece, composed of two rings of twisted bark woven around wool material in a complex slanting pattern and sewn together with rope. The lower ring is smaller in size. Front and back are decorated with tufts and bands of shredded cedar bark sewn together with thread. Brown.